Today, the world can’t agree on how to curb carbon emissions. So imagine the not-too-distant future, when climate change has unmistakably arrived but countries can’t settle on which technological fixes should be employed. So the International Institute for Strategic Studies wonders, what’s to stop a country facing monsoon after monsoon from unilaterally trying to cool…Continue Reading…
At some point, there’s going to be a vigorous, public debate over adaptation to climate change. How, for example, will we make agriculture more drought resistant? Cue the scary music for biotechnology, since genetically modified organisms will inevitably assume a greater role. But as Yael Borasky argues, If we acknowledge the potential pitfalls and benefits…Continue Reading…
Are we finally having a debate on climate adaptation? Sorta. Maybe. Not If politicians, policymakers and climate advocates were really engaging the thorny issue of adaptation, this story by Bruce Stutz, which appeared late last month on Yale Environment 360, would have circled the globe by now. This quote alone from Columbia University’s Wallace Broeker…Continue Reading…
This new poll of climate scientists by The Guardian will raise many an eyebrow. If the quotes in the article reflect where the climate science community is heading, get ready for an ugly debate that will probably split the environmental community. The mitigation crowd has already boarded its freight train. If the adaptation crowd gets…Continue Reading…
As I outlined here, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) is grappling with global warming in a big way. Additionally, federal biologists from Florida to Arizona are currently at work on new long-range plans that factor in the unpredictable effects of climate change on vulnerable species. It’s a complicated task, fraught with many uncertainties….Continue Reading…
While public debate in the U.S. swirls over the best and quickest course of action to reduce carbon emissions, another debate on global warming is quietly unfolding in anonymous government offices across the country: how to manage wildlife and ecosystems that are certain to be greatly impacted by the forces of climate change already underway….Continue Reading…
You may not know this but between now and doomsday, there’s still a lot of choices to be made related to climate change. (I’ll get to a few of them in a minute.) That’s because all the news and blog chatter in recent months has focused on how we all of a sudden found ourselves…Continue Reading…
In the orthodox house of climate change advocacy, adaptation is the abused stepchild. It sleeps in the attic, is denied sunlight and proper nourishment. This ill-treatment owes largely to the mitigation brood, who have the run of the house. They ridicule and beat up on adaptation whenever he tries to sneak into the pantry for…Continue Reading…
In the unofficial climate change anxiety index, you won’t find archaeology ranked very high. That’s understandable. If the worst scenarios come to pass, the world will be in a heap of trouble and people are going to worry about saving themselves, not the remains of ancient civilizations. But in the meantime, archaeologists are sounding the…Continue Reading…